Agri View: Canola Oil

Canola oil. It is one of the most widely cooking compounds in the world today. But, it didn’t even exist prior to the 1980’s.

It started in Canada as an experiment. Today, it is Canada’s largest crop. Canadian scientists started by breeding out the undesirable traits from Rapeseed. It wasn’t even called Canola for nearly half of a decade. What is not officially known as Canola seed produces twice as much oil as soybeans.

But, what puts canola in a class of its own is that it can lower cholesterol and lower blood sugar.

And even though we are producing our own canola oil in the United States, we still import half of Canada’s crop. It isn’t just in the United States and Canada. Rapeseed has become a desirable crop all over the world.